Various local organizations (cities, municipalities, etc.) are increasingly having optical fiber cable systems installed for purposes of providing access to high speed wireless internet services, as well as to enable continuous and comprehensive surveillance for traffic safety and personal security. Common configurations utilized for such optical fiber cable installations have conventionally utilized either aerial (i.e., pole-mounted) or underground arrangements. A typical underground cable installation requires the digging of a trench (typically in an existing street or pedestrian surface), laying conduit, and then running one or more optical fiber cables through the conduit. Alternative installation methods are known to include underground boring and micro-trenching (for creating conduit paths or directly burying the cable itself). All of the aforementioned practices are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and disruptive to vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Moreover, underground cable installations tend to be prone to subsidence and/or undesirable surface irregularities after the conduit and cable are laid and the trench is refilled.
Thus, a need remains for an improved system for installing outdoor (typically referred to as “outside plant”) optical fiber cable, particularly is situations where pole-mounted access is not available.